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Friday, October 22, 2010

I ♥ Lambrusco

I must have driven through the region a hundred times. Never stopped. Always on my way to somewhere more important. Alba, Montalcino, Fiumicino, Ciampino. It was often a spot on the highway where I’d zone out. It was flat. It was boring. I was tired. We’d already been to too many places for Italian wine.

And then I spent a few days in the region. No Brunello, no Barolo. I remembered back home, my pal Paul and his love for the stuff. He had people driving all the way from Beaumont, Shreveport, and Abilene to Dallas to get the fizzy wine from him. I didn’t pay any attention to it. Figured they were people who just hadn’t developed a taste for Italian wine and were stuck in a genre. Boy, was I wrong.

I had just finished a very long meeting with Italian apparatchiks, listening to their boring speeches and then listening to the translations. And then having to listen to the Italian speaker correct the translator as to the way she incorrectly translated him. It was long. It was tedious. Staring at the ceiling. Here I was again in this area, not on the highway this time, but the same sensation. Boredom. And then someone announced that lunch was being served and everyone came to life.

I don’t remember ever having had a meal standing up in Italy, except for at an Autogrill or Vinitaly. There was an array of foods from the area, cured meats, cheeses, some over béchameled lasagne, a scant few greens. And over in the corner there was some radioactive looking green fizzy kiwi juice and a bucket of wine. A winemaker came up to me and started pouring me his sparkling Malvasia. Nice. And then his sparkling rosé that he named after his beautiful wife. I liked his wife better. And then he poured me his Lambrusco. And the lights went on.

This was the kind of wine I wanted when I would go into a restaurant in my hometown. I’d probably never find it, though. It wasn’t cool enough for Dallas. Not big and voluptuous with lots of poofy hair and mammalian charm. It was a little subtler than that.

It was tasty. I sucked the first glass down. I feared the afternoon of headache from drinking red wine syndrome. It happens to me. I didn’t need that, what with the nose bleed syndrome that was cramping my style. But I went in for another glass. Wow, this was an epiphany!

Several days later we were at a dairy/bar/salumeria and the same wine popped up. I had a glass. And then another Lambrusco showed up. And I had another glass. After my last two-glass-of-red-wine-lunch-with-no-headache I wanted to test the waters. And the wine was sooo good. I was hooked.

A day or so after that lunch we were in Modena at Antica Moka and another Lambrusco was being poured, strange looking bottle. Looking big. Looking important. Lambrusco di Sorbara “Vecchia Modena” by Cleto Chiarli. I gave it a try. Wow, it was even better than the other two I’d had.

I had this as we were heading out of Emilia towards Lucca and Viareggio. So my little Lambrusco affair was over as soon as it had started. But I will return. This is too good to let another 20 years pass by. I’ll be back.

folks in this area really get "supply chain", i.e. getting product to the consumer. The little I have seen with winemakers, they are either really large (industrial wines) or they are small and have the "deer in the headlights" syndrome. USA is still strange water for them to navigate in, comprehending the scale. Believe me I just spent a week talking to them about this. Lots of blank stares and then they'd say, " yeah but you like my wine yes? Please buy my wine." Oy...

AC, you're so right about the big, industrial Lambrusco producers (awful stuff). The small guys are, well, small guys who have never left home. I'll add that some excellent Lambruscos are quite perishable and may not travel well.

The other aspect of it this, as usual, price. Thanks to Riunite et al, wine buyers here are conditioned to think of Lambrusco as cheap plonk for stupid customers and balk at anything that'll appear on the shelves for more than about $12-15. Even a lot of "sommeliers" don't know from nothin'. It is really an uphill battle. Which is a terrible shame, because the good Lambruscos are like nothing else in the world.

"I left Italy that year (1998) wondering why these wines have not been picked up by some smart importer."

Actually great lambrusco has been available in the USA (CA and NY) since 1995 (vintage 1994) when I stumbled upon Medici Ermete's 'Concerto'. It was the very first top-quality, single vineyard dry lambrusco made and has since started a lambrusco revolution in Italy.

We are receiving our 17th!! Concerto vintage this year. Concerto is the only lambrusco which has received a 'tre bicchieri' award from Gambero Rosso TWICE (2009 and 2010) - so far.

The US consumer has been ready for quality lambrusco for the last 15 years - and I can proof it (we now import 7 (!) different quality fizzy and 2 still lambruscos).

So, what's the reason why authentic lambrusco is not more readily available?

The age of the buyers in the US distribution system: Most haven't grown out of the lambrusco image of the 1970/80's. (Once, I've been told by a distributor: "Quality Lambrusco? That's something I need like a hole in my head".)

I'm afraid, Thomas, you've got to wait another 20 years :) ...or move to California and New York.

Alfonso, I'm so glad you posted this. We ran across some doozies on a long trip through northern Italy about 10 years ago, and when I came back raving about local Lambrusco I got withering stares. I've been questioning myself ever since because sometimes context overrides everything else--and that was 10 years ago, when I was less secure about what I liked in general.

Please let me know if you run across anything like this in our neck of the woods.

About Me

Writing about Italian wine and culture. Moving between Italy and America. Passionate about both of my countries. Fed by the energy of Italy, California and Texas. Drawn to the open spaces of America and the small vineyards of Italy.
@italianwineguy
ItalianWineTrail@yahoo[dot]com